Magnetic toy simulating urban operations



Sept. 26, 1967 G. C. KELLY 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 29, 1964 INVENTOR.

GERALD 0. KELLY ATTORNEYS .Sept. 26, .1967

G. C. KELLY MAGNETIC TOY SIMULATING URBAN OPERATIONS :2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 29, 1964 INVENTOR F GH GERALD O. KELLY BY 7 F l 7 ATTORNEYS United States Patent Ofiice 3,343,299 MAGNETIC TOY SIMULATING URBAN OPERATIONS Gerald C. Kelly, 28 Abbott Ave., Warwick, RI. 02886 Filed Oct. 29, 1964, Ser. No. 407,419 8 Claims. (Cl. 46240) This invention relates to a toy or amusement device for a child and involves the manipulation of vehicles for doing Work such as is encountered after a snowfall,

Toys involving the use of imitation snow or the like are often objectionable because the imitation snow may be scattered about the home on a rug and be diificult to recover for further use and is messy when out of its proper place.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide, enclosed in a container so that the same cannot escape, the part that is to imitate snow or the like.

More specifically, an object of the invention is to provide inclined ramps for elevating the manipulated vehicles within the container to heights above the bottom wall with corresponding advantages which may be obtained by this elevation in the doing of the work desired.

A further more specific object is that of providing a magnetic member within the vehicle which is manipulated by means of which the vehicle may be more accurately directed in its manipulation over the bottom wall, this means taking the form of a cylindrical member with north and south poles.

Another object of this invention is to provide an arrangement so that one magnetic part which may be an imitation man may be contained within an imitation vehicle in such a way that the man may be placed within the vehicle or removed therefrom by magnetic means, and when placed within the vehicle will be manipulated with the vehicle as if riding in the vehicle.

Another object of the invention is to provide an arrangement so that through magnetic manipulation the non-magnetic material which represents snow may be spread about an area such as a bin rather than requiring that the dumping vehicle be located at different locations to fill the bin.

With the above objects in view, the toy or amusement device has the further objects of being so built that the parts within the container are all manipulatable from outside of the container by certain means such as by magnetism for propelling the objects or articles within the container, and where magnetism cannot be utilized for the desired manipulation, I have provided some means which project through the side Wall of the container and is mechanically manipulatable from Without the container so that the contens of the container may remain closed and the imitation snow cannot escape therefrom.

With these and other objects in View, the invention consists of certain novel features of construction as Will be more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the acompanyin-g drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the toy or amusement device as supported upon legs so that access may be had to the undersurface of the unit;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view on a larger scale with the cover removed looking into the interior of the unit;

FIG. 3 is a section on line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a section on line 44 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a section on line 5-45 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a section on line 6-6 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a view substantially on line 7-7 of FIG. 2;

3,343,233 Patented Sept. 26, 1967 FIG. 8 is an elevation of a magnetic imitation dump truck;

FIG. 9 is a section through this truck on substantially line 9-9 of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is an elevation of an imitation truck with a scoop or pick-up scoop on the front end thereof with a portion broken away;

FIG. 11 is an elevation of an imitation bus;

FIG. 12 is an elevation of an imitation man;

FIG. 13 is an elevation of a magnet used;

FIG. 14 is a plan view of the righting r-od used; and

FIG. 15 is a perspective view of the cylindrical magnetic member utilized in some of the vehicles.

In proceeding with this invention, I provide in the form of a moldable container a portion of a village or settlement containing buildings and streets from which snow is to be removed. The snow is in the form of some finely divided material such as rice which is scattered by shaking the container about the bottom wall of the container and thus over the roads and sidewalks of the village which the container represents. I have also provided in this container by molding the bottom wall or shaping a non-magnetic metal wall so as to provide platforms and ramps for handling the imitation snow, and for this handling of the snow, plows, dump truck and other vehicles are utilized for performing the useful work of removing the snow from the streets. In order to propel the plow or pick up with the scoop of the truck and other vehicles, a steel cylinder is located in each of these vehicles and a magnet may be used beneath the bottom wall of the container so as to move these vehicles about to do the work desired. Suitable mechanical means are also provided for additional manipulation as desired to do this useful work.

With reference to the drawings, the container of this invention is designated generally 10 which is supported on legs 11 mounted at its four corners. The container may be made from a molded plastic material, and in such molding the bottom and side Walls of the container are shaped to provide raised platforms, imitation structures and the like. Also the bottom wall may be made from a non-magnetic sheet of metal.

Generally speaking, there is a bottom wall 12, side walls 13, 14, 15 and 16, and a top wall 17. The top wall will be transparent and the other walls may also be transparent, if desired. The top wall 17 is a separate piece and is suitably held in place, such as by the clamping strips 18 secured to the edge of the side walls.

The contour of the bottom wall is arranged so that there are provided platforms at different locations. Thus, there is a platform 20 with a ramp 21 leading thereto, while a receiver 22 is provided at the end of the platform into which imitation snow such as rice may be dumped. A void 23 (see FIG. 3) is located beneath the platform so that a person may place his hand in this void for purposes hereinafter described.

A second platform 25 may be formed adjacent another side, such as 13, of the container with ramps 26 and 27 leading up to this platform from either side thereof, while adjacent the inner side of this platform there is a bin 28 provided for storage of the imitation snow. A void 32 (see FIGS. 4 and 6) is provided beneath the platform and ramps, while a shaft 33 may extend through the side wall 13 and be fixed to arm 34 with a handle 35 on the end of this shaft 33 so that the same may be manipulated to swing a truck body to dump snow into the bin 28.

The bottom wall is also provided with imitation buildings or other structures 40 which might be found in a village or the like. One of such buildings which is designated 41 (FIGS. 1 and 7) is an imitation garage for the storage of vehicles to be presently described. This garage has a swinging door 42 which is fixed to a pivoted horizontal shaft 43 which extends through the wall 16 and is manipulatable by a handle 44 so as to raise the garage door from the outside of the container. This handle 44 may be maintained in raised position by reason of a pin 45 extending from the wall 16 so as to hold the handle and garage door raised, while in lowered position it may rest against the bottom wall 12 of the container. The raised position is illustrated in dot-dash lines in FIG. 7.

Rice or some other article of finely divided form may be scattered by shaking the container over the roads represented by the bottom wall of the container and which is so confined by reason of the closed container that the imitation snow and articles therein cannot escape therefrom even though the container is turned upside down.

Located within the container, there will be several vehicles, and one of the vehicles will be a snow plow and pick-up scoop 50 comprising a truck 51 (FIG. with a scoop 52 located at the forward end thereof as shown. A steel cylinder 53 (see FIG. will be located rotatably beneath this truck in such as manner that the truck is partly supported on this cylinder and partly supported on wheels such as 54. This cylinder will be magnetically attractable, and with a truck such as shown in FIG. 10 located within the container, a magnet 100 such as shown in FIG. 13 may be utilized by placing the same close to the under surface of the bottom wall in adjacency to the vehicle 50, and then by manipulating this magnet, it may be moved as desired. Assuming that the vehicles are in the garage 41, the first step would be to raise the garage door 42 by means of the handle 44 outside of the container and then manipulate the vehicle 50 so that the snow scoop may be made to collect in its portion 52 the rice which has been scattered over the surface of the bottom wall, and this truck may be manipulated so as to deposit this rice by the truck going up the ramp 21 to the platform and pushing this rice into the receiver 22. The magnet may be held close to the plow by reason of the deflected ramp and void. This plow may be manipulated until the roads about the buildings represented in the container are clear of rice or snow and that snow deposited in a hopper 22.

The next maneuver is performed by a dump truck 55 shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 which likewise has a cylinder of steel 53 located in its undersurface partly supporting the truck while theremainder of the truck is supported by wheels 57. This truck has a chassis 58 and a body 59 pivoted on this chassis by pins 60. The body which is pivoted has a depending wing 61 projecting therefrom and r has a generally V-shape containing body. The chassis and its wheels are so that these may be run under an overhanging part as will presently appear.

The next maneuver is to utilize the truck 55 to convey the snow from the hopper 22 to the bin 28. Thus the truck is manipulated to a point adjacent the receiver 22 such as along the road 65 to a point so that the truck body will be beneath the conveyor designated generally 66 which comprises pivoted pulleys 67 and 68 about which a belt 69 extends. This belt has conveyor scoops 70 along its surface so that as the pulleys are rotated, the conveyor belt will pick up the snow in the receiver 22 and dump it into the truck body 59 which is maneuvered so as to be beneath it. The lower pulley 67 has a shaft 71 which extends out through the side wall 73 (FIG. 3) of the receiver into the void 23 where it may be manipulated by a knob or handle 72 accessible through the void so as to turn this shaft and manipulate the conveyor to dump the snow into the truck. Side walls 74 close to the edges of the belt prevent the rice or snow from engaging the inner surface of the conveyor belt.

When the truck is full of snow or as much as it can carry, the truck is then moved along the road 65 and up the ramp 26 to the platform and at such locations that .4 the wheels and chassis are beneath the overhanging lip 75 which projects inwardly from the side wall 13 of the container. Again this may be done by reason of the deflected bottom wall and ramp beneath, enabling the magnet to be held close to the vehicle. Thus, the chassis extending beneath the lip 75 will hold the chassis on its wheels, while the arm 34 on the shaft 33 which passes through the side wall 13 may be turned by handle 35 so that the arm 34 will engage beneath the cam shaped wing 61 of the pivoted body 59 and tip this body so as to discharge the imitation snow into the bin 28. The truck may then have its body righted by removing the arm 34 allowing the weight 76 to right the empty body and then manipulated down the ramp 27 and through suitable roads or passageways around to road 65 where another load may be placed in the truck by the conveyor 66.

A further vehicle which is utilized is that of an imitation bus designated generally 80 and shown in FIG. 11. This bus has a recess or imitation open door 81 and is provided with a cylindrical steel member 53 as is the case of the other vehicles and upon which the bus is partly supported, while it is supported also by wheels 82 and 83. The recess 81 is of a size and shape so that a man 85 (see FIG. 12) may be magnetically moved into this recess, and by reason of the magnetic base 86 upon which he is mounted, this man may be manipulated so as to clean snow from some certain area such as corners or the like along the bottom wall. This man may be placed within the bus by magnetically sliding him into the recess 81, and then the bus may be manipulated to some location where it is desired that the man get out of the bus which can be done by then directing the magnet to a position beneath the location of the man and the recess 81 of the bus.

After this manipulation has been completed, if it is desired to repeat the operation, the container may be moved about so as to scatter the snow over the roads again and the operation may be repeated.

If in scattering the snow over the road, any of the vehicles should be capsized or turned over, then it will be desirable to right the same, and this may be done by passing the rod 96 (FIG. 14) through an opening such as 97 (FIG. 1) in one of the side walls and using the hook end of this rod to right the vehicle, after whtich this rod may be positioned either on some support such as one of the buildings which the container or may be withdrawn therefrom. In case the opening 97 is larger than a particle of snow, 21 cover 98 pivoted for movement to or from a position over opening 97 may be used to close opening 97.

By reason of the use of a cylindrical piece of steel such as shown in FIG. 15, there may be provided north and south poles so that the north and south poles of the magnet may be adjusted with the north pole of the magnet at the south pole of the roller and the south pole of the magnet at the north pole of the roller so that directional movement may be more easily given to the vehicles which are manipulated.

In some cases it may be desired to spread the rice about the bin 28, and in this case a little magnetic spreader device may be utilized located in the bin, and by manipulation of this small piece of magnetic material, the rice may be readily distributed over the surface of the bin.

In order to provide some sort of a guide for the location of the vehicles in points where it is somewhat critical, guiding means 88 and 89 may be provided to locate the dump truck beneath the conveyor 66 while guiding means 92 cooperating with the edge of the bin 93 may be utilized for guiding the vehicle in a location to be dumped by the arm 34.

I claim:

1. A toy comprising a container having a non-magnetic generally flat bottom wall of substantially uniform thickness and enclosing side walls, magnetic imitation vehicles within the container, a magnet for manipulating said vehicles over said bottom wall, said bottom wall being deflected upwardly from a generally flat surface raised to provide a platform with a ramp merging from the bottom wall and leading to the platform providing a void beneath said raised platform for the manipulation of the magnet in the void to move the vehicle up the ramp to the raised platform and loading means adjacent the platform comprising a conveyor with a shaft extending through an upwardly extending portion of the bottom wall into said void, and a handle on said shaft.

2. A toy comprising a container having top wall, a nonmagnetic generally flat bottom wall and enclosing side Walls, an enclosing inner wall upstanding from said bottom wall to a height less than said side walls providing a bin, said bottom wall being deflected upwardly adjacent said bin to provide a ramp merging into the bottom Wall and leading to a raised platform with a void beneath, a magnetic imitation dump vehicle within the container, a magnet manipulatable in said void for moving said vehicle up said ramp to the platform and means for dumping the contents of the vehicle into the bin.

3. A toy as in claim 1 with means in said bin to spread about the bin material dumped thereinto.

4. A toy comprising a container having top wall, a nonmagnetic generally flat bottom wall and enclosing side walls, an enclosing inner wall upstanding from said bottom wall to a height less than said side walls providing a bin, said bottom wall being deflected upwardly adjacent said bin to provide a ramp merging into the bottom Wall and leading to a raised platform with a void beneath, a magnetic imitation dump vehicle within the container having a rockable body, a shaft extending from a point adjacent said platform through a side wall and having a lever thereon adjacent the platform and a handle on the outer side of the side wall, a magnet manipulatable in said void for moving said vehicle up said ramp to the platform to a location adjacent said lever so that the vehicle may be rocked by rotation fo the shaft to discharge its load into said bin.

5. A toy as in claim 3 wherein Weighting means are contained in said rockable body to right said body after dumping.

6. A toy comprising a container having a generally flat,

non-magnetic bottom wall of substantially uniform thickness and enclosing side walls, an imitation vehicle within said container, a cylindrical magnetic member within and partly supporting said vehicle and engaging said bottom wall, and a magnet for manipulating said vehicle over said bottom wall and rolling said magnetic member.

7. A toy comprising a sealed container having top, bottom and enclosing side Walls extending between the top and bottom Walls, loose non-magnetic particles within the container scattered over the bottom wall, a magnetic imitation vehicle within the container and magnetic means operable from outside the container for manipulating the vehicle to move the loose particles in the container, one of said side walls having an opening therein and a rod of a length to extend through said opening to said vehicles to right the same, and means to prevent pass-age of said particles through said opening.

8. A toy comprising a container having a generally flat bottom wall and enclosing side and top walls, an imitation garage within said container having one of the side walls adjacent the container side wall and a second side wall spaced therefrom leaving an open front for the garage, a closure door for said open front having a pair of arms rigid with said door and extending along either side of said garage side walls, means pivoting said arms thereon, the pivot in the garage side wall adjacent the side Wall of the container extending through the container side wall and operable means attached to said pivot to swing said door about said pivots and open the door.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,879,845 9/1932 Delich 4640 2,522,160 9/1950 Borchers 46-12 2,637,140 5/1953 Hoff 46-240 2,658,602 11/1953 Bonnano et a1. 4640 X 2,673,421 3/ 1954 Leonard 4624O 3,106,042 10/ 1963 Roethler 46-240 F. BARRY SHAY, Primary Examiner.

RICHARD C. PINKHAM, ANTON O. OECHSLE,

Examiners.

R. F. CUTTING, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A TOY COMPRISING A CONTAINER HAVING A NON-MAGNETIC GENERALLY FLAT BOTTOM WALL OF SUBSTANTIALLY UNIFORM THICKNESS AND ENCLOSING SIDE WALLS, MAGNETIC IMITATION VEHICLES WITHIN THE CONTAINER, A MAGNET FOR MANIPULATING SAID VEHICLES OVER SAID BOTTOM WALL, SAID BOTTOM WALL BEING DEFLECTED UPWARDLY FROM A GENERALLY FLAT SURFACE RAISED TO PROVIDE A PLATFORM WITH A RAMP MERGING FROM THE BOTTOM WALL AND LEADING TO THE PLATFORM PROVIDING A VOID BENEATH SAID RAISED PLATFORM FOR THE MANIPULATION OF THE MAGNET IN THE VOID TO MOVE THE VEHICLE UP THE RAMP TO THE RAISED PLATFORM AND LOADING MEANS ADJACENT THE PLATFORM COMPRISING A CONVEYOR WITH A SHAFT EXTENDING THROUGH AN UPWARDLY EXTENDING PORTION OF THE BOTTOM WALL INTO SAID VOID, AND A HANDLE ON SAID SHAFT. 